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22 Dec 2009
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22 Dec 2009
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If they can't guarantee the safety near the frontier, where can they?
Kobenni is about 17 km linear distance from a checkpoint at the frontier (only looked it up in GE) and there are still some villages inbetween. Very sad.
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22 Dec 2009
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Has anything been said/heard about the Spanish aid workers kidnapped a short while before? Or did I miss the outcome?
"If besides Algeria 2003 no biker was ever kidnapped in Africa, why why why worry? If you're a biker." - Priffe
Priffe, I like your approach and sincerely hope you're right - for the sakes of us who ride rather than drive! Not sure that my government could meet any kind of ransom demand...
Whether it is mode of transport, nationality or religion or a combination of them all... I still find it humiliating that we can be so at odds with each other that - as humans - we go to such extremes to further our causes. And that fingers humanity as a whole, I suppose...
My thoughts remain with them all. And with us all.
__________________
"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon
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22 Dec 2009
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Quote:
Urgent: Arrest of the sponsor of the kidnapping of the Italians
The sponsor of the operation of removal of Italians in eastern Mauritania has been arrested on the night of December 21, 2009, ANI has learned from security sources.
This is a Malian national, belonging to a tribe of northern Mali, replying on behalf of Ben Abderrahmane Meddoui
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Urgent : Arrestation du commanditaire de l’enlèvement des italiens
Regards
Ulrich
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22 Dec 2009
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22 Dec 2009
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE5BL1MR.htm
NOUAKCHOTT, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Mauritanian security forces have arrested a Malian suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Italian couple near the Mali-Mauritania border, security sources said on Tuesday.
Abderrahmane Ben Meddou, who was arrested in Mauritania's eastern town of Kobenni on Monday, is suspected of having helped identify and follow the Italian couple in return for promises of thousands of dollars, Mauritania's news agency reported.
The kidnapping is the latest in a string of seizures of foreigners by armed groups in West Africa, some of whom have links with al Qaeda's North African wing, AQIM.
"He was arrested in Kobenni by the gendarmes," a security source told Reuters, referring to the eastern Mauritanian town near to where the Italian couple's bullet-riddled car was found abandoned on Saturday.
The Malian is currently being questioned by the authorities in the capital, Nouakchott, the security sources added.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping but Italy said it is using all its political and diplomatic channels to try to secure the release of the couple.
Citing intelligence sources, Mauritania's AMI news agency said Ben Meddou has told officials that he had found and followed potential hostages in return for a promise of 10 million CFA francs ($21,810) at the end of the operation.
It was not immediately clear who Ben Meddou was working for but local media reports suggested the Italians, and three Spaniards taken last month in Mauritania, were kidnapped on the orders of various factions of AQIM.
Analysts and diplomats suspect the Italian couple have been taken into Mali's remote north, where other foreigners, including the Spaniards and a Frenchman al Qaeda says it is also holding, are believed to be.
Rather than carrying out kidnappings themselves, Islamists in the region are believed to rely on local gangs, generally involved in the smuggling of cigarettes, weapons, drugs and people, to seize foreigners who are then passed on to them.
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23 Dec 2009
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Interesting article from RFI about the secret negotiatons to free the hostages.
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Negotiations have started to release the four European hostages, including French kidnapped in northern Mali. RFI correspondent in Mali, Serge Daniel was able to meet the key man of all ongoing negotiations. Three Spaniards and French were abducted late November 2009, operations claimed by the Maghreb branch of al-Qaeda.
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Des tractations secrètes pour libérer les otages européens
Google translation
Regards
Ulrich
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23 Dec 2009
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i think the end is near....
i hope the best for the hostages and have good christmans
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24 Dec 2009
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The mauritanian Imam Abu Hanna has written an handbook for AQMI how to handle hostages.
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The fate of the Spanish hostages by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) depends largely on one man: Rahman, Abu Hanna, the judge called the desert, a religious leader that there is only one photograph which appears in videos, hidden under his turban while launching incendiary harangues about the need to create a new Caliphate and an Islamic government in the Maghreb. Speeches that always end with the tagline: "I pray to Allah to die for jihad".
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El Pais - En manos del juez del desierto
Gogoonisch - English
Also interesting: The involvement of an mauritanien police-officer at the abduction.
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Stop the Security element in the Mauritanian Mauritanian gendarmerie sergeant first suspect his involvement in the kidnapping of Spanish nationals in Mauritania and Mali, and two other part of the campaign carried out by the Mauritanian security to pursue al-Qaeda in the desert who are accustomed to in recent kidnapping ·
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Djazair - إيقاف ضابط برتبة رقيب أول بالدرك الموريتاني متورط في عملية اختطاف الرهائن الإسبان
Gogoonisch - English
Regards
Ulrich
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26 Dec 2009
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Quote:
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BAMAKO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Malian authorities are making progress in negotiations with al Qaeda gunmen holding three Spaniards and a Frenchman hostage, a source close to the talks said on Saturday.
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Reuters - Mali progressing in talks to free hostages -source
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28 Dec 2009
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News about Spanish and Italien Hostages.
L'Expression Edition OnLine - Al Qaîda pose ses conditions
Al Qaeda poses its conditions
and
Un jefe tuareg de Malí negocia el rescate · ELPAÍS.com
A Malian Tuareg leader negotiates the rescue
and
Saharamedias
Quote:
Adopted al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the kidnapping of Italian couple, which took place a few days ago on a road south-eastern Mauritania.
Adoption came in an audio message, dated 27 December (December 2009), in which the recording purported to be official media in the organization Salah أبومحمد, confirming the responsibility for the kidnapping.
He connected the abduction of what he called (crimes committed by the Italian government in Afghanistan and Iraq).
The certificates stated that the initial kidnapping of the couple were in the same way that Spaniards kidnapped by 3 at the end of November (November) in the other side of the country in the process adopted by the organization itself.
For its part, the Mauritanian government has sought to reassure foreigners, saying it had taken all necessary measures to ensure their security.
A security source said that the Italians, who have been missing since Friday night at the Coppini Mauritania (abducted by an armed group on the likely). He added that Sergio Siclla, a retired at the age of sixty and his wife Velomini Kabore (39 years), the Italian who comes from Burkina Faso (who were heading to Burkina Faso, a small bus is registered in Italy).
The kidnapping of the Italians after 3 weeks of the kidnapping of 3 Spaniards on the coastal road between Nouadhibou and Nouakchott (north west), the process adopted by the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Pests and certificates travelers collected source close to the local authorities that the hijackers appeared suddenly at night on the road. They fired in the air and on the wheels of the vehicle stops for passengers before they took people only leave the car including.
The eastern Mali since 2008 haven for Islamic groups, meant to kidnappings of Westerners. It is likely that the three Spaniards who were kidnapped in November 29 (November) in the north-western Mauritania exist in this country, in addition to Gaul was kidnapped in 26 of the same month in the town of Menaka northern Mali.
The Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in the last two years a series of bloody attacks in Mauritania, including the killing of 4 Frenchmen at the end of 2007, in suspended (250 km east of Nouakchott) and the U.S. in June (June) in the capital.
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Regards
Ulrich
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28 Dec 2009
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The statement in arabic (audio only)
Statement - audio
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28 Dec 2009
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29 Dec 2009
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Quote:
BAMAKO — A Spaniard who is one of six hostages believed to be held by the north African branch of Al-Qaeda is unwell, a diplomatic source said Tuesday in Mali.
"We currently know with precision that one of the six hostages, a Spanish national, isn't very well. He needs the appropriate medical care," said the diplomat, reached by an AFP correspondent in Bamako.
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AFP - Hostage held by al-Qaeda is 'sick': diplomat
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Ulrich
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30 Dec 2009
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The Spaniard has got three gunfire impacts in the legs
Good morning!
This is the information published by Spanish media today:
El Go no confirma que uno de los rehenes españoles está herido · ELPAÍS.com
Quote and translation of the more relevant news:
"...la información que maneja el Ejecutivo apunta a que el cooperante recibió tres disparos en la pierna izquierda -uno en el tobillo y dos en el muslo, uno de los cuales le afectó al fémur- al intentar escapar en el momento del secuestro, según fuentes gubernamentales..."
"The information managed by the Executive suggests that one of the cooperants received three shots in the left leg - one in the ankle and two in the thigh, one of whom affected the femur- trying to escape at the time of kidnapping, according to government sources."
The rest of the article just states informations already known like "it's a good thing the captors mentioned that they are going to treat prisioners by the Shariah because it says to treat them well, etc..."
Other Spanish newspaper called El Mundo adds a little more information in the sense that the injuries are not serious:
Albert Vilalta, uno de los secuestrados, está herido de bala en una pierna | Barcelona | elmundo.es
and captors move prisioners every two days to hide them properly, even they change countries:
"from North Mali, to South of Algeria, East Niger and Mauritanie..."
Malí afirma que mueven a los rehenes 'cada dos días' para dificultar su localización | Barcelona | elmundo.es
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
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helps answer the question - Why Go? Inspirational stories by veteran travellers Greg Frazier (5 times RTW), Peter and Kay Forwood (193 countries), Tiffany Coates (Mongolia Mayhem) and Rene Cormier (University of Gravel Roads).
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